The Barbary Coast is a name for the North African coast of the Mediterranean Sea. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Barbary pirates were a serious threat to shipping in the Mediterranean. They would attack ships and demand protection money from the owners. Those who refused would have their ships captured and their crews taken as slaves.
The failure of attempts to conquer England (such as that of the Spanish Armada or the Battle of Britain in World War II) has contributed to the myth that British insularity constitutes an insurmountable defense for enemy armies since the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066, the last tim
The Illyrians were an ancient people of the Balkans. Some consider them ancestors of modern Albanians, which is not proven. One of their strongest tribes was that of the Dardanians, who also founded a powerful state centered in the region of todays Kosovo and part of todays Serbia, but which particu
In 207 BC Greece was once again torn apart by civil strife. In the Peloponnese the conflict between the Achaean League and Sparta was at its height. Sparta, under the tyrant Mahanidas, had assembled a powerful army and claimed Peloponnesian hegemony through a network of alliances. On the other si
We all know the feat of Thermopylae where Leonidas and his 300 Spartans of his – in addition to the 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans forgotten – they faced the innumerable army of Xerxes - innumerable because the numbers range from 100,000 to a million - but there was another similar feat that took p